Newsweek Blog Finds Foley in "Cool" Coterie of Disgraced Pols

Foxy Newsweek blogette Holly Bailey over at The Gaggle wonders if yesterday's skunks are smelling a lot like today's roses: It appears that politicians who have been tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail (or even better, bundled off to prison) are soon enough able to step into shiny new careers as political hacks/consultants/ talking heads or, better yet, elected officeholders! Witness the fetes and extravaganzas thrown in honor of recently sprung Jim Traficant, or the sight of Tom Delay swanning around on Dancing with the Stars, or Eliot Spitzer peddling his economic bon pensees on Slate and CNBC.

Spitzer appears to be planning on another run for office, a thought that may have occurred, too, to our homegrown cyber-jerkwad, Mark Foley. Foley has been prancing around backslapping the likes of Rush Limbaugh, another drug-addled, paranoiac, closet case we fervently hope will someday drown in his own spew. Since the friendship between the two talk radio hosts blossomed at Pistache bistro in downtown West Palm, we can assume that the formerly disgraced French fry, too, has been thoroughly rehabilitated. Steak frites are "cool" again, even in Republican circles!

Here's what the gagglers had to say about Foley:

Mark Foley. The former Republican congressman from Florida saw his political career go down the tubes in 2006 after a series of salacious e-mails and instant messages he sent male House pages became public. Foley, who was never convicted of wrongdoing, recently emerged back into the public spotlight when he got his own show on a South Florida talk-radio station--even if it is a little boring. Still, Foley reportedly remains popular with his former constituents and recently has been making the rounds at Palm Beach County GOP events. Last month, he was introduced along with elected officials by the local GOP chairman at a health-care town-hall meeting. And two weeks ago, he was spotted hugging Rush Limbaugh at a West Palm Beach fundraiser for Marco Rubio, who is battling Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP primary for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat. In an interview with a local GOP activist, Foley said he didn't think he'd run for office again, but he didn't shut the door completely.

Baily adds that Foley still has nearly a $1.2 million nest egg burning a hole in his campaign account. Ruh-roh!